Valeria Levitin, the world’s thinnest woman, weighs just four stone after years of extreme dieting, far below her healthy weight range. Standing at 5ft 8in, she should weigh between 9st and 12st according to NHS guidelines. Despite her severe emaciation, Levitin warns young girls against aspiring to such thinness, urging a societal wake-up call.
At 39, Levitin shared with The Sun, “I have received emails from young girls who want me to teach them how to be like me. All the letters I’ve had are from women, mainly in their twenties, who see me as some kind of inspiration.”
In response, she bravely confronts her condition and actively campaigns against anorexia, refusing to guide anyone towards what she terms a path to self-destruction.
Having battled an eating disorder since adolescence, Valeria has decided to publicly reveal the profound effects of her illness on her life. She hopes that by sharing her journey, she can deter others from a similar fate. Levitin describes her anorexia as leaving her “lonely, unattractive, and repulsive to the people around me.”
Her struggles trace back to her mother’s fear of Valeria becoming obese like other family members, leading to strict dietary controls from an early age. This relentless pursuit of perfection saw her mother frequently monitoring her weight to ensure no gains.
At 16, Valeria moved to Chicago with her parents, weighing 10st. Hoping to fit in at a new school, she believed losing weight would make her more accepted and popular. This belief led her to further restrict her diet, cutting out sugar and carbohydrates.
Ironically, her prolonged abstinence from certain foods has now made them intolerable to her body. A classmate’s cruel remark about her figure further fueled her determination to lose weight. She recounted, “We were playing football and during the game a man said, ‘I know how we can win. We need to put Valeria’s big arse in the goal.’ It shattered my whole world.”
By age 23, her dress size had plummeted from a healthy 12 to a petite 6. Pursuing a modeling career only worsened her situation; despite being very thin, she was told she was still too fat. By 24, she weighed a mere six stone and was barred from dancing due to the risk of injury.
Over the next decade, she sought help from over 30 health specialists, reaching a dangerous low of 3st 10lbs. Even if she wanted to eat certain foods today, her body can’t tolerate them. Her prolonged abstinence from bread is so severe that she can’t remember its taste.
Her illness has led to a life of loneliness. Unattached for ten years, she finds relationships challenging, unable to engage in typical couple activities like dining out. Valeria believes a conventional doctor’s intervention won’t cure her, having seen no weight gain despite numerous specialist visits. Instead, she feels the issue is a “lack of harmony between body and soul.”
She now relies on supplements to prevent bruising and avoids situations where she might fall. Considering a move back to Moscow, she feels more connected there and dreams of becoming a mother through surrogacy.
Valeria hopes that the desire to have a child could motivate her to reclaim her health. Achieving good health is a goal she believes she can reach while working towards becoming a mother.
Expressing her longing for a family, she said, “I would love to have a family because I feel I have so much to give. But obviously, it wouldn’t be right to have a baby when I am ill. It wouldn’t be fair to the child. I want to stand up to anorexia. I’ve never given up on anything in my life and I’m not about to give up now.”
